Contraception Truths

People often use contraception because they are hoping to unite with the other person but are avoiding children for some reason. Although there are just reasons for postponing having children, contraception is never a moral way to do so. Although you may think that you are uniting with the one you love, when you use contraception you are not actually coming together and not making the best decision for the other person. Love is choosing what is best for the other despite the cost to oneself; love involves sacrifice. Love involves giving your total self to the other person, and in the marital embrace, that includes one's fertility.


Barrier Methods

Barrier methods of contraception include the condom, the diaphragm, the cervical cap, etc. They are called barrier methods because they put a barrier between the man and woman. If a barrier is placed between you, do you think you are uniting together as one flesh? Would you still engage in sexual intimacy if you needed to cover another part of your body, such as your face?


The Negative Effects of Hormonal Contraceptives

Do you know that hormonal methods of birth control (the pill, IUD, the shot, etc) are not good for your health?

Some of the "less serious" possible side effects from hormonal contraceptives include: nausea, weight gain, sore or swollen breasts, decreased bone density, mood changes, headaches, vision problems including the inability to wear contact lenses, and decreased libido. Some of the "more serious" side effects include: heart disease, stroke, death, infertility, breast cancer, depression, migraines, and high blood pressure.

Hormonal contraceptives are the only "medicine" that takes something that is working well in the body and prevents it from functioning properly. Why put yourself at these risks if you are healthy? If you are taking them because you have a problem with your cycle, click here.

Contraception is intrinsically evil (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2370), so regardless of your intentions, it is never good for you or your marriage. It may seem the easier road to take, but in the long run (if not before then) it will cause harm to both you and your relationship with your spouse.

Think you're an environmentalist? Not if you use contraception!

Did you know that the pill is bad for the environment? Check out this video from American Life League for a short explanation of how.

 


How Does the Pill Work?

The pill was designed to prevent a woman from ovulating. However, in order to prevent ovulation, the doses of the pill need to be extremely high. When the pill was first developed and tested, many women died from its use. Instead of discontinuing the pill, or simply not approving it for use, they simply decided to lower the dosage. Women still die from the use of the pill, but not as many as once did. This lower dosage causes what is called "breakthrough ovulation." Sometimes, and some studies show as much as 20% of the time, women still ovulate while taking the pill. So if she ovulates, how is pregnancy prevented, since we know the pill is more than 80% effective?

The second way the pill works is to increase a certain type of cervical mucus. In a healthy woman's cycle, there exists a mucus plug at the cervix (the neck of the uterus) that serves to protect the uterus from any foreign bodies. The pill increases the production of this cervical mucus so that a mucus plug exists more often. Therefore even if the woman does ovulate, the sperm cannot penetrate the mucus plug. If the sperm cannot meet the egg, then no baby.

HOWEVER, this doesn't always work either. Sometimes the woman does ovulate and sometimes the sperm does get in. Women do get pregnant while on the pill and far more frequently than the 1% of the time that studies by contraceptive companies often claim (for their 99% effectiveness). The third way that the pill works is by preventing implantation. Conception almost always occurs in the fallopian tubes. The new life then travels to the uterus and implants on the endometrium, the lining of the uterus. However, when taking the pill the new life is often destroyed, or aborted. The hormones in the pill affect the build-up of the endometrium (which, in a healthy cycle, is built up every month in preparation for pregnancy and then shed at menstruation if the woman is not pregnant). The endometrium of a woman on the pill often cannot sustain a pregnancy, so the baby does not implant. Without implantation on the endometrium, the baby does not receive the nutrients it needs to survive, and thereby dies.

Therefore, simply calling hormonal contraceptives contraception is inaccurate. They are also abortificants. The scary thing is, if you are taking hormonal contraceptives and you are not pregnant, you do not know why. It may be that conception never occurred. It may also be because your "medication" has caused the end of life of your baby.

Why have you not heard this? Contraceptive companies have tried to redefine the beginning of life (contrary to every medical textbook) to implantation instead of conception. At conception, there does not just exist a "fertilized egg" like it is just some part of the mother. At conception, a new life has been created with its own unique DNA. Yes, it is a little baby, but this baby is unique and unrepeatable, a person made in the image and likeness of God. Deny that it is a person until implantation is beyond ridiculous, but the contraceptive companies have been claiming this for years and people are believing it!


Vasectomy Information

In a vasectomy, the vas deferens is clipped. The vas deferens connects the testes to the urethra, the tube leading out of the man's body. At ejaculation, the sperm travels through the vas deferens to the urethra out of the man's body. After a man has a vasectomy, he continues to produce sperm, but the sperm can no longer travel out of his body as God designed. So where does the sperm go?

Some of the sperm is resorbed by the body. Studies indicate the various side effects associated with vasectomies. The blockage of the sperm can be painful. Sperm can be found in the man's bloodstream.

Vasectomy reversals involve surgery to reconnect the vas deferens and thereby avoid the continuation of negative side effects and achieve a possibility of a return of fertility.  

For more information on the medical side effects, click here.

Using Hormonal Contraceptives for Medical Reasons?

Did you know that your hormonal contraceptive is not treating your medical problem? It may treat the symptoms, but the problem hasn't gone away. It is similar to taking Tylenol when you experience a headache from brain cancer; it alleviates your pain, but you still have brain cancer. It will eventually catch up with you.

Physicians often prescribe the pill to "regulate" a woman's cycle. If you understand both a healthy woman's cycle and what the pill does, you quickly realize that the pill is not regulating anyone's cycle.

The epitomy of a cycle is ovulation. Every other phase surrounds ovulation. If a woman between menarche (first menstruation) and menopause is not ovulating, there is a problem with her health. No birth control pill will solve this problem.

Women with irregular cycles (too much bleeding, infrequent bleeding, long cycles, painful periods, etc) think the birth control pill is helping. Yes, it can slow down bleeding, cause bleeding once a month, and alleviate the pain, but it only removes the symptoms not the problems. Women often think that because they bleed once a month, their cycles are healthy. But the birth control pill isn't helping their cycles.

Often it is not until a woman wants to have a baby that she realizes that the birth control pill she thought was "regulating" her cycle has caused her more harm than good. Women who have used hormonal contraceptives often struggle with conceiving when they seek to do so.

This all sounds extremely negative. It is negative because hormonal contraceptives are not good for you. Doubtful? Read the medical insert that comes with your contraceptive.


What's the alternative?

Are you stuck bleeding too much? Or experiencing life-stopping painful periods?

NO! there is a way to treat the problem instead of just the symptoms. Natural Family Planning, in conjunction with NaPro (natural procreative) technology can help you identify the root of your reproductive cycle issues and offer treatment. For more information, check out these websites

Resources on the harmful effects of contraception  

Bone Density

 

Breast Cancer

 

Death

 

Decreased Sex Drive

 

Effect on Cervix

 

Environment

 

Heart Disease

 

Church Teaching

 

Pamphlets

What is the difference between NFP and contraception?



NFP and the Telos of Sex - the difference between NFP and contraception as explained by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Learn More

What a Woman Should Know about Birth Control
Alternatives to the Pill
Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?

Birth Control Pills for Medical Reasons